Following her performance, fellow judge Cowell joked that he wanted to judge as if he was Scherzinger because he was sitting in her seat between LA Reid and Paula Abdul.

"I'm sitting in Nicole's chair so I'm going to critique like Nicole," he said. "I believe in you, you believe in me, you transcend the universe, God is smiling on you, life is a waterfall and you are the ultimate rainbow."

Scherzinger responded: "That's beautiful, I couldn't have said it any better!"

Scherzinger also told Steve Jones that it felt "amazing" to be performing on The X Factor stage, adding that she had "waited for so long" to perform on the show.